Philippine president warns of terror alert

The Philippine president has warned of a possible terrorist attack during an annual Catholic procession in Manila that may draw more than a million devotees.

President Benigno Aquino III told a news conference today that several terrorists planning to disrupt the religious procession have been sighted in the capital.

He said police are attempting to arrest the suspects and disrupt any planned attack.

Aquino said security will be very tight for tomorrow’s procession of a centuries-old image of Jesus Christ known as the Black Nazarene. He asked devotees not to bring mobile phones or weapons.

"The sad reality of the world today is that terrorists want to disrupt the ability of people to live their lives in the ways they want to, including the freedom to worship,'' Aquino said in the nationally televised briefing.

While there was a “heightened risk,” Aquino said the possibility of a terrorist assault was not high enough for the government to make an unprecedented decision to cancel the day-long procession, which often lasts well into the night.

He said security will be tight. All firecrackers, which are traditionally lit during the event, will be banned and violators will be arrested, he said.

The huge number of barefoot devotees who gather during the procession through downtown Manila’s narrow streets “makes it a very tempting terrorist threat,” Aquino said.

Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo said without elaborating that six to nine people may be involved in the plot.

Tens of thousands of mostly male devotees wearing maroon shirts surge forward to touch, kiss or wipe the wooden statue, which is believed to possess mystical and healing powers.

Although hundreds get injured in the melee each year as the statue is pulled on a carriage along a three-mile route, the devotees still turn up as a personal sacrifice to atone for sins, pray for sick relatives or seek special favours.

About eight to nine million people are expected to join the procession from Manila’s seaside Rizal Park to a popular church in Quiapo district. About 1,600 policemen will be deployed in addition to an army contingent, organisers said.

The wooden statue of Christ, crowned with thorns and bearing a cross, is believed to have been brought from Mexico to Manila in 1606 by Spanish missionaries. The ship that carried it caught fire, but the charred statue survived and was named the Black Nazarene.

Some believe the statue’s survival of fires and earthquakes through the centuries and intense bombings during the Second World War is a testament to its powers. The Philippines is Asia’s largest predominantly Roman Catholic nation.

Aquino said authorities have been monitoring possible terrorist threats since August but declined to provide other details. The threat monitored by the government was not related to a US government travel advisory last week which warned Americans of terror threats in the Philippines, he said.

Asked if the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group, which is based in the country’s south, was behind the threat, Aquino replied that the possibility has not been confirmed. He said the terrorists monitored in the capital were Filipinos.

Abu Sayyaf militants, who are notorious for bombings, kidnappings and beheadings, have staged deadly bomb attacks in metropolitan Manila in the past. In 2004, they detonated a bomb that set off an inferno and killed 116 people aboard a ferry in Manila Bay in the country’s worst terrorist attack.